New Delhi: Residents of Jewartala village in Chhattisgarh’s Balod district denied a burial site to a local Christian man, Raman Sahu, the New Indian Express has reported.
The incident occurred days after a similar case in Kodekurse of Kanker district, where villagers refused to allow the burial of another Christian man, Manoj Nishad. Reports had said that his family had been moving from village to village for three days looking for a place to bury his body but unable to find one due to opposition from villagers.
Sahu and Nishad had both converted to Christianity.
In July, there was communal tension in Kanker district after Jamgaon villagers vandalised a church over the burial of another Christian convert, Somlal Rathore.
After Sahu, who died in a Raipur hospital, was brought to his village for burial, locals refused to let his family proceed and said that last rites could only be performed according to traditional village rituals. Police failed to convince the villagers and Sahu’s family was eventually forced to bury the body at a burial ground in Sankra village.
Arun Pannalal, president of the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum, condemned the denial of burial as a violation of constitutional rights, accusing authorities of inaction before mobs instigated by certain groups.
Early this year, after a split verdict, the Supreme Court had ordered the burial of a Chhattisgarh Christian man 20 km away from his village. A petition by the son of third-generation Christian Subhas Baghel had challenged the Chhattisgarh high court ruling denying him the right to bury his father’s body at a graveyard in Bastar’s Chhindawada village. The verdict came after the deceased man’s body had been kept in the morgue for 20 days.
This story was originally published in thewire.in.